Electric railway vehicles (“electric vehicles”, hereafter) equipped with a power storage device run on non-electrified routes, where no overhead power lines are installed, by means of a motor driven using power output from the power storage device. As the power storage device, for example, a secondary battery, such as a nickel-hydrogen battery or a lithium ion battery, or an electric double-layer capacitor is used. In low temperature conditions, the internal resistance of the power storage device increases, and therefore the power dischargeable from the power storage device may possibly decrease. Thus techniques have been developed for raising the temperature of the power storage device.
A railway vehicle drive control device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 expedites rise in the temperature of a storage battery, without operating an inverter, by repeatedly charging the storage battery using engine power generation and discharging the storage battery to drive a power generator so as to absorb a load at the engine brake.